When nerdy, unhip Ellie Jenson meets rich, handsome Luke Thayer the Third as freshmen at Harvard University, it's Hate At First Sight. Ellie loathes Luke's smirk and superior attitude, and decides if she never sees him again, it will be too soon.

Fifteen years later, Ellie gets the surprise of her life: Luke is her new boss and owner of her company! But when Ellie discovers that Luke was paralyzed in an accident and is now in a wheelchair, she wonders if it's possible to be friends with this new, down-to-earth version of her former foe. Or maybe even more than friends, if Luke gets his way...

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When nerdy, unhip Ellie Jenson meets rich, handsome Luke Thayer the Third as freshmen at Harvard University, it's Hate At First Sight. Ellie loathes Luke's smirk and superior attitude, and decides if she never sees him again, it will be too soon.

Fifteen years later, Ellie gets the surprise of her life: Luke is her new boss and owner of her company! But when Ellie discovers that Luke was paralyzed in an accident and is now in a wheelchair, she wonders if it's possible to be friends with this new, down-to-earth version of her former foe. Or maybe even more than friends, if Luke gets his way...

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5つ星のうち3.7
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J. Hooligan @ Platypire Reviews

5つ星のうち2.02 Platypires

2017年11月4日 - (Amazon.com)

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I saw this book on a Goodreads list of disabled main characters while I was looking up things to read for this month's diversity challenge. I absolutely love stories that are loathing to love, because I'm a grown woman and I do what I want. So I figured I needed to read it. It also helped that it was free on Amazon.

So I started it. And the beginning amused me. Although it wasn't mutual loathing, sadly to say. But hey, one-sided is okay too. But as I went on things just continued to bother me.

Ellie is pretty much abusive... but she gets away with it because she's dating a guy in a wheelchair, and he's lucky to have her. At least, that's how it came across. She kept pointing out that he's "crippled" and saying things like "from the neck up, he’s still pretty gorgeous". Oh, and she basically emotionally manipulates him into having sex with her, even though he said no. She seriously pulled a, "have sex with me or we break up"line on him. So, as a character I think she's absolutely awful and disgusting. There's a whole lot more I can add, but that'd require too many spoilers.

Now, Luke... he starts out iffy. But he's supposed to. And the only reason this story isn't getting rated a 1 is because of his character development. He's been through a lot and has grown considerably because of this. Between his accident and his father, he's had a lot to overcome. And it's not hard to believe he ended up with a woman who would also be abusive. It's really sad but also realistic.

Every freaking time Ellie, or any other character, went on trying to say how she can't be with Luke because of his physical disability I cringed - hard. The things these people said. And I'm not saying it's not something that happens out in the real world... but it was hard to stomach. Replace handicapped with any other race or religion and have a character say those things in a book... and they come off as racist/prejudice. But ablest speech still isn't taken seriously. So I think this book was great at being an eye opener to me in that regard.

Out of every book I read for this month's challenge, this one was the only one that I didn't like. I don't recommend it and I won't be reading the other book by the same author that I also planned on reading for this challenge.

So far, I have really enjoyed each of the Costa stories I've read because of their realism and positive outlook, but this one took the H&h over the emotional river, through the conflict woods, and down the angst rabbit hole before they made it to the HEA.

In college, Ellie and Lucas never really got to know each other. She hated him because he always got whatever he wanted. He picked on her because she was easy prey. They graduated, went their separate ways and that was the end, until years later, when Lucas bought the company where Ellie worked. As their work relationship developed, it slowly morphed into a romantic thing. Lucas was happy to admit that, in school he had really wanted to be more to her than just a classmate, while Ellie continued to engage in negative comparisons: rich vs. poor, handsome vs. plain, socially adept vs. socially inept, etc. She seemed to have some naive idea that an injury that put him in a wheelchair was some kind of equalizer. It took her forever to see that he had as many emotional hang-ups as she did, and that money really can't solve all of life's problems.

When the dust finally settled and they were together, I breathed a sigh of relief. The author had dug deep into the trope trunk and pulled out everything -- rich, dominant alpha male pursuing a stubborn, independent female; disapproving parent and back-stabbing friends sowing dissention everywhere; secrets, rumors and poor communication causing conflict between the H&h; unplanned pregnancy, and more. It got so busy I almost expected to see demons, shape-shifters, tattoos, and membership in a motorcycle club.

Ranting aside, I still liked the story. The characters were well fleshed-out, the action moved smoothly, and loose ends were neatly tied up. I just wished for an epilogue to show how they fared further down life's road.

I recommend this to any reader who likes to see a romance with adults handling real-life adult issues. The writing is clear and strong, the dialog is realistic and believable, the main characters are people you would like to know in real life, and some of the secondary characters are people you DO know in real life (and wish you didn't).

Don't let the cartoon cover and the YA Title scare you off from this book. This story is a beautiful romance between two adults. You first meet Ellie and Luke when they are 18 and in their first semester at Harvard. They have a love/hate relationships, but Ellie never really believes anything could come of it. Flash forward 16 years later and Ellie and Luke meet again, but things have changed and Luke is now paralyzed and stuck in a wheel chair. For someone like him, finding a woman who could really love him despite being disabled has been impossible. But Ellie was his first college crush and she doesn't disappoint him now as an adult because she can see past his disability. The development of their romance is really very endearing and realistic. And you can't help but love these two characters. Of course, this can't be a romance novel without some turmoil, and you do get that. Additional twists are thrown in, but the way they are resolved is satisfying.

I can't even explain how much I adored this novel. I would recommend in a heartbeat, and it is a seriously quick read. I read it in just a few hours. Do yourself a favor and read this because it is a different kind of love story, which is so refreshing from the cliched and templated romance novels that are published every day.